Twitch has put a stop to streamers farming Valorant beta drops

Twitch has updated its community guidelines to put a stop to streamers exploiting the 'Drops Program' that doles out Valorant closed beta access to viewers. It turns out that some of them have been tagging VODs running continuously as live to attract viewers.

📢 We’ve heard concerns about creators continuously streaming VODs while tagging the channel as "Live" to farm Valorant Drops. This harms the integrity of our Drops Program so we’ve updated our Community Guidelines to clarify that cheating any Twitch rewards system is prohibited.April 28, 2020

All Valorant streams now contain these drops, which is currently the only way for most people to gain access to the beta, which of course has resulted in lots and lots of streams and even more viewers. It's not surprising, then, that some streamers have started using unscrupulous methods to get a leg up on the competition.

Game director Joe Ziegler commented on the change in policy, calling Twitch a "great ally" in assisting Riot during the beta.

Twitch has been a great ally in helping us ship our beta, and they are continuing to support the best efforts to ensure drops stay fair. Here's an update on their VO/Drop policies. https://t.co/jeEM9m6l8uApril 28, 2020

Fraser is the sole inhabitant of PC Gamer's mythical Scottish office, conveniently located in his flat. He spends most of his time wrangling the news, but sometimes he sneaks off to write lots of words about strategy games.